Equity pending: Why so few women receive patents

Since the first patent was awarded on July 31, 1790, to Philadelphia inventor Samuel Hopkins for developing a new way to make potash, the United States has granted patents for inventions ranging from the revolutionary, like the cotton gin and the electric light, to the whimsical, like Patent No. 6168531, a giant bowl of interactive simulated soup.

But as the US Patent Office issues its 10 millionth patent this month, one thing has changed little since the republic’s early